Love Never Dies unmasked: Andrew Lloyd Webber's new Phantom premieres in London

Surprise no 1! Our scene isn't Paris, but Coney Island, 10 years on. Christine is a successful soprano; the Phantom a mysterious 'Mr Y' who owns a colourful but shady pleasure park
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

Surprise no 2! It turns out that rumours of the death of our hero (played by Ramin Karimloo) have been greatly exaggerated, and so he's desperate to pay Christine (Sierra Boggess) an eye-watering sum for one last gig. Any resemblance to Lloyd Webber himself is, of course, purely coincidental
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

But Christine's arrival has consequences (no surprise there). Meg Giry – played by West End darling Summer Strallen, left – has been the Phantom's favourite showgirl. She's none too pleased with the arrival of his sometime sort-of-ex
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The rest of the story, co-written by Lloyd Webber with Ben Elton, is almost too silly to relate, but (by way of a clue) our own Michael Billington suggests that a crucial plot point – the question of who fathered Christine's child – is 'hardly a matter of nail-biting suspense'
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

The rest of the reviews have been mixed: Charles Spencer in the Telegraph suggests that it's 'Lloyd Webber's finest show since the original Phantom'; Benedict Nightingale of the Times asks where 'the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness' of the original have gone, and awards it a measly two stars
Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features

Lloyd Webber himself has not been the calmest of men recently: he declared his annoyance with bloggers who reviewed the show in preview (none too favourably – the West End Whingers memorably rechristened it 'Paint Never Dries')
Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features

The show has been attacked from another flank, too – so-called 'Phans' who deplore the very idea of a Phantom sequel. Last night the anonymous Phantom fan who had led the campaign on Twitter and Facebook was unrepentant, saying that 'the sequel makes zero sense'. Despite having seen the show 40 times around the world, he denied that he attended in costume or wept copiously every time
Photograph: Tristram Kenton

None of this seems to have put off the musicals mafia, who faithfully trooped to last night's gala premiere at the Adelphi theatre. Here Cameron Mackintosh, Elaine Page, Michael Ball, Nick Moran and guests are pictured at the ritzy afterparty
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Middle-rank celebrities were also indefatigable in their support of the show. Could Rory Bremner be taking out his frustration with Love Never Dies's numerous naysayers?
Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features

Still attached to the big hair and bigger tunes of the 1980s? Disagree with Michael Billington that 'no masterpiece has been besmirched' in the making of Love Never Dies? You could just go and see the original Phantom (seen above in its first incarnation with Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman), which is not far from notching up its 10,000th performance at Her Majesty's theatre ...
Photograph: Donald Cooper/Rex Features